Racism. Another topic that shouldn’t exist.

The Stella D'Oro cookie factory workers--whom we last visited back in February as they toughed it out picketing through the dead of winter--have gotten a summer break. An administrative law judge with the National Labor Relations Board issued a ruling this week ordering that Stella D'Oro reinstate the workers and pay them back wages. According to the decision, the company, owned by the private equity firm Brynwood Partners, had violated collective bargaining procedures and failed to turn over key documentation to representatives of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers…

The Obama administration's ambiguous promises on immigration reform are confusing enough, but the latest move to crack down on employers of undocumented immigrants may indicate that even if “comprehensive reform” legislation is on the horizon, justice for exploited immigrant workers is nowhere in sight. The New York Times reports : On Wednesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency known as ICE, said it had sent notices announcing audits of hiring records, like the one it conducted at American Apparel, to 652 other companies across the country. Officials said they were…

Under the banner of reform and equal opportunity, the country is moving toward national education standards. But in education, a "common" standard isn't necessarily an "equal" one, especially for the communities hardest hit by failures in public schools. EdWeek reports that Education Secretary Arne Duncan is using the federal stimulus to push states to adopt “voluntary” nationwide standards, designed to “eliminate the patchwork of academic standards across the country that result in students in the same grades learning different things in different states.” Broad national standards…

That’s the question Chevron is asking Richmond, CA. This Wednesday, a Contra Costa Superior Court Judge sided with environmentalists and community groups in a lawsuit against the refinery to stop the company from manufacturing cruder types of oil until it can get a new environmental impact report that answers key questions and a new permit from the city. Even though the judge’s ruling didn’t kill the project completely, Chevron responded by swiftly laying off 100 workers right after the announcement with 1,000 more to go that were included under the upgrade, costing the city $50 million…

Written by: Elsadig Elsheikh, Research Associate with the International Program at The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity On Sunday, June 28th, major media news outlets were still occupied with the topic of Iran’s sham election results, while a tedious insult against democracy was taking place in Central America. A small segment of the Honduran army, led by General Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, a graduate of the School of the Americas, booted out the democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya. General Velásquez’s force kidnapped President Zelaya from his presidential…